Victoria Gotti was born November 27, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York City. Her parents are mob boss John Gotti and Victoria Gotti, whose father was of Italian descent, and mother was of half Italian half Russian ancestry. Gotti was raised in a two-story house in Howard Beach, New York, with her four siblings, which include brother John A. Gotti, sister Angel, and her younger brother Frank, whom she referred to as her "little doll".
Career
Writing
Victoria Gotti was a columnist at the New York Post and a reporter for WNYW, the New York Cityflagship station of the Fox Television Network. In 1995, Gotti wrote her first book, Women and Mitral Valve Prolapse, which was inspired by and documented her own struggle with the illness. In 1997, she published her mystery novel The Senator's Daughter, followed by more: I'll Be Watching You, Superstar, and Hot Italian Dish. She additionally wrote the memoirs This Family of Mine: What It Was Like Growing Up Gotti.
Television
From August 2004 until December 2005, Gotti was the star of Growing Up Gotti, an American reality television series on the A&E Network, on which she starred with her three sons. In August 2005, days before the third season premiere of Growing Up Gotti, Gotti stated that she had breast cancer. However, after being accused of faking her illness by various media outlets, she admitted soon after her initial announcement that she did have precancerous cells present in her breast, rather than an actual diagnosis. In early 2012, Gotti appeared as one of 18 contestants on the American reality television series Celebrity Apprentice, which premiered on February 19. Gotti was eliminated in week 2 of the competition. On September 22, 2013, Gotti made a guest appearance on The Real Housewives of New Jersey alongside cast member Teresa Giudice, appearing in the season 5 episode "Hair We Go Again". She appeared on the show again in the season 6 episode "Roses Are Red, Dina Is Blue", which premiered on August 24, 2014. In December 2014, Gotti made a guest appearance in "Storm A-Brewin'", a fifth season episode of the VH1 reality show Mob Wives. Despite having criticized the authenticity of that show in a 2012 radio interview, in which she characterized it as a "train wreck" and "not real", Gotti appeared in the episode for a scene in which cast member Angela Raiola seeks her advice on how to resolve her conflicts with her inner circle. On February 9, 2019, Lifetime aired the documentary film which stars Chelsea Frei as Victoria Gotti and Maurice Benard as John Gotti. Victoria Gotti serves as the narrator, co-writer, and executive producer of this film.
Personal life
In 1984, Agnello married Victoria despite her parents' disapproval. The couple had three sons, Carmine, John, and Frank. The family lived in a mansion in Westbury, New York, that was the location in 2004 for the reality television series, Growing up Gotti. In 2003, while Agnello was in jail, Victoria Gotti divorced him on grounds of constructive abandonment. In May 2009, foreclosure was approved on the $3.2 million mansion that Gotti was awarded as part of her divorce from Carmine Agnello.
